create-snagset

Scaffold a self-hosted Snagset instance — click-to-comment review for your clients' live sites.

pnpm create snagset my-review
cd my-review
pnpm install && pnpm start

npm  create snagset@latest my-review   # then: npm install  && npm start
yarn create snagset my-review          # then: yarn install && yarn start
bun  create snagset my-review          # then: bun install  && bun start

Bring a Postgres URL — a free Neon or Supabase branch, or a local install — and put it in .env as DATABASE_URL. Open http://localhost:8080 and create the first owner — an instance nobody has claimed shows a setup screen rather than a sign-in form, and the first person to fill it in becomes the owner, so do that before you share the address.

No Docker, on purpose. No Dockerfile, no compose file, nothing to build: Snagset is a Node process and a Postgres URL.

What you get

A directory with everything an instance needs and nothing it does not:

| | | |---|---| | .env | Configuration. DATABASE_URL is the only required variable — a signing key is generated into it for you | | package.json | @snagset/server as a dependency, with start, migrate and env scripts | | vercel.json + api/index.js | Deploy to Vercel instead, if you would rather not run anything | | README.md | The operating manual, written for the instance you just made |

Then what

Sign in, add a site, and paste the tag it gives you into the site you want reviewed:

<script src="http://localhost:8080/snag.js" data-snag-site="prj_…" defer></script>

Your client opens a review link, clicks the thing that's wrong, and types. No account, no extension, no login — the link is the whole identity. You get the pin, the screenshot, the console and the route.

Prefer an import? npm i snagset gives you the same tag from snagset.init({ host, site }), or the framework subpaths — snagset/react, snagset/vue, snagset/next, snagset/vite (which covers Nuxt and SvelteKit too), snagset/astro.

What it costs to run

A Node process and a Postgres. Screenshots want an S3-compatible bucket (R2, Spaces, MinIO, AWS) and notifications want a mailer — both optional, and the product is honest without them: no bucket means annotation mode and the widget says screenshots are unavailable rather than offering one that fails.

Back up the signing key

If you did not set SNAGSET_SECRET_KEY, one was generated into your .env. Treat it as a password. Without it every reviewer session is dead and any stored credential is unreadable ciphertext.

Early release. The install path is tested end to end, but this is a 0.0.x line: expect the odd rough edge, and pin the version if you need stability. Issues and notes are welcome at snagset/snagset.

AGPL-3.0-only. The widget you put on a client's site is snagset, and it is MIT.